I took a trip this past week. Headed over the pass to some warmer weather in Spokane, WA. when I arrived at the boat launch I went to put my boards on the racks and I am missing one rack. i felt like I was being punk'd. I'm not sure if someone jacked it while I was in a store, but then why wouldn't they have taken the other one? So my guess is it somehow fell off during travel...I hope it was maybe over small bump in town somewhere and not wiggled loose goin 70 on the hwy. that coulda been ugly. Whatever! I'm over it. I had to get a little creative with surf and wakeboard stacking but we made it work...

We were only there for 2 days because we were heading to another lake with some other friends. So our last morning we were surfing and some people were complaining about the gas smell. I didn't think much of it, sometimes its more noticeable than others. I pull the boat out of the water to find my FAE hanging off one side. It had come loose off one of the exhaust ports AND broke the all-thread support on that one side. I'm pretty confident I didn't hit anything. Never felt anything and no other evidence anywhere. But I guess I could have??? Or maybe it had to do with lots of tubing? I really don't like tubing but 6 kids 11 and under...we did a fair share of tubing.

My first thought was just to remove it, but then I realized I didn't even have my exhaust covers to put on in its place. It ended up being a pretty simple fix, just stopped by a home depot and got some new all-thread and nuts and washer and when we got to the next lake reinstalled the FAE. Whew!

We stay at the next lake for 3 days (Blue Lake), had a great time. We finally get home late Monday night and I notice a tear in my cover. One of my boards somehow penetrated the cover. I wanted to blame my wife because she loaded it this time, but they were seemingly in the same spots I store them when we travel so not sure whey this time was different, but needless to say...this was probably my worst travel experience with boat.

Was a crazy weekend on the lakes in the Kan too. We spent it on Coeur d'Alene & Liberty.

Blue Lake by Moses or Blue Lake by Coeur d'Alene?

You take your life into your own hands being on Lake Coeur d' Alene on the weekend! I live 20 minutes from that Lake and I haven't boated near the Resort for probably 5 years! We take off from Sunup Bay a couple times a year to go up the St. Joe......best water in the WORLD...don't tell anyone, ok!

You take your life into your own hands being on Lake Coeur d' Alene on the weekend! I live 20 minutes from that Lake and I haven't boated near the Resort for probably 5 years! We take off from Sunup Bay a couple times a year to go up the St. Joe......best water in the WORLD...don't tell anyone, ok!

We were in Windy Bay..... a LONG way from the resort. It was still nutty but we managed to SkySki & paddle surf a lot & have a great time.

Idaho hillbilly you are right! The St. Joe is the best water in the world. We have been towing a boat up there every summer for the last 12 years from southern Idaho, to ride glass on the St. Joe. I wakesurf the Joe now days but still love it just as much.

The glass is half full. Spending the weekend on the water with family and friends - surfing, boarding, tubing (kids only). Great, scenic location, good water, lots of laughter and smiles. A few, minor things went wrong. Nobody hurt. Had the skills to repair one on the spot.

Karl....AMEN! Crap happens and breaks, that just part of owning toys. A bad day on the water is still WAY better than a good day at work.

Bill...the southern end of the lake is MUCH better than by the resort. My in-laws had a couple cabins in the Sunup/Windy bay area. We were on Spirit Lake on Sunday and there was a lot of boats on the water. I don't think there was a body of water this past weekend that wasn't full. That's why we do most of our surfing during the week.

Bill, I may have passed by you on Liberty Lake. There was a blue wakesetter out with a skyski while we were there. someone was throwin some monster flips too. It would've been wed, thurs, or friday morning...

After Liberty Lake we head to Blue Lake which is right next to Sun Lakes. Probably one of my favorite spots. Weekends aren't bad by any means, but there are some boats there. But a weekday on Blue Lake??? it was hard to leave on Monday, not a single other boat on the lake and literally glass from 9am til we pulled the boat out around 4.

Bill, I may have passed by you on Liberty Lake. There was a blue wakesetter out with a skyski while we were there. someone was throwin some monster flips too. It would've been wed, thurs, or friday morning....
After Liberty Lake we head to Blue Lake which is right next to Sun Lakes. Probably one of my favorite spots. Weekends aren't bad by any means, but there are some boats there. But a weekday on Blue Lake??? it was hard to leave on Monday, not a single other boat on the lake and literally glass from 9am til we pulled the boat out around 4.

Yep, that would be me. The blue Wakesetter is actually a 05 Vride that the original owner ordered completely blinged out.
After riding for a week behind my brother's XTI, and then coming back to my own wake & 1000 lbs of ballast, everything I throw is crazy big now. It's been a fun problem to have.

I have read about that Blue Lake. It's part of the series of lakes created by Grand Coulee dam, Banks, Sun, Blue, Billy Clapp, & Moses.... supposed to be really nice. Guess I need to check it out.

Theres also a Blue Lake near Harrison, ID., off the chain of lakes the Coeur d'Alene River creates.

Thanks K.D. That "crutch" is the only way I can keep up with you younger guys any more!

Ryan, check out the Derailers at Conklin Marina there at the south end. The marina in Harrison was pretty hoppin this weekend too. And if the wind is up, then duck into the chain & hit the 3rd lake on the left...... I think it's the first bridge high enough to go under with your tower up. Blue Lake is plenty big enough to ride on, but only like 20' deep so it warms up a lot more than CdA & it's protected from the wind.

That blows. Seems like every time I travel with my boat I come back, put it back in my home lake (American Lake in WA) and wonder why I ever bother to take it anywhere else. We just finished a trip to Bear Lake in Idaho. I took the trailer to a local shop to have them put on 2 new tires, run through the brakes and bearings before a 2K mile trip. So we put the boat in and the trailer makes a lot of noise in reverse and a faint scraping noise in forward I could not hear in the car. Quick look at the calipers shows that 3 out of 4 had fallen off and were sitting in the rims trying to cut off 2 inches of the rim. They were scored pretty heavily. So I go to take the wheels off so I can get the calipers out of the rims and all the wheels wheels were loose. I could wiggle the worst about 1" either way. Seems the dude didn't put the retaining wires back in the spindles. Anyways, just happy to make it home alive from that one. I'm done towing for a while

Is cave bay pretty tame compared to the resort area? How are the cops, other boats etc?

The entire south end of the lake is way more calm than the resort area. This recent trip we hung out around Windy, Sunup, and Conklins without any issues. Other trips to CdA we have had a great time around Harrison & the chain. There are still big boats around, just not so many that you can't handle their wakes easily.
We saw one cop in 3 days, which isn't too bad, as long as he doesn't want to pull you over.
Lots of tubers though. We only boarded early in the mornings. And then surfed or SkySkied the rest of the day.

Thanks for the tips guys. Ill try to post up some pictures when I get back. What's the cop situation like there? Do you need a third in Idaho or is a mirror acceptable? I will Google it but if anyone knows off hand thanks in advance.

Hayden is a nice lake, but not super big, so it can get pretty busy in the peak hours. A ton of wakeboarders use Hayden. There is really only one launch on the lake (Honeysuckle Beach) and parking is limited and the launch can be an adventure. Tobler Marina might have a launch...might be worth checking.

If your worried about cops, Hayden WILL have a Sheriff patrol and probably others doing boat inspections.

Only been to Hayden one time. Had a great time. The sand bar is a fun party spot. One cove looks cool as your driving in but it's super shallow. The yahoos using that Honeysuckle launch are a crack up..... two narrow lanes & 1/2 of them can't back up a trailer into one lane.

Guys, what the heck are you doing?! Keep it down about the Joe, we don't need the whole world knowing about that place. Ayyyah! Friends just bought a house 7 miles up river from St Maries and gave us an open invitation. I couldn't believe my eyes when we made it there 2 weeks ago. Its amazing! E. Wash and Northern Idaho have some of the best riding spots you can imagine. Love living here! :-)

I will not say another word about the Joe! We will let them hang out on the "Mini-Ocean" Lake while we play on.......weeellllll you know! I wish I had a good picture of the Joe, but none of them does it justice.....again....not another word!

Living in North Idaho is the reason my boat has never traveled more than hour from my house. WHY would I go any where else? The only problem is we have a short season, but that's why I have snowmobiles....my wintertime addiction!